I-Team: Natick Police Shut Down Sex Trade Operation

NATICK (CBS) – Police arrested two women on Monday, saying they performed sex acts for money, only to learn they were being held against their will.

The I-Team first reported the problem of human trafficking in the suburbs back in November.

Investigators say there are hundreds of these sex trade operations across state. The I-Team reported about arrests in North Andover, Sudbury and Braintree just to name a few. Now Natick Police have moved in to shut another operation down.

The Oasis Spa was seeing customers on Cochituate Street in Natick. Police say it is yet another example of the forced sex trade thriving in Bay State suburbs.

Natick Police arrested two Chinese nationals, a 45-year-old New York resident and a 39-year-old who police believe was forced to live at the spa, while preforming sex acts on customers in exchange for food.

The older woman is charged with enslaving the younger one.

In November the I-Team reported about the growing number of these operations, many using the name, “body works” or “reflexology” because because those shops are not required to be licensed or inspected.

There are even web sites reviewing the services offered in some of Boston’s nicest suburbs.

Attorney General Martha Coakley spoke to the I-Team in November.

“We are focusing on the people selling, organizing the business, making money off of it,” Coakley said. “We have tried to to look at the women who are in the business many of whom have brought to this country under false pretenses.”

Natick Police tell the I-Team they believe the Cochituate Street operation is part of a much larger organization and involved women arriving by train at South Station from New York.